The "Fighting McCook's"

DanAlex

Daniel McCook Family


Daniel McCook
 Father of the tribe; Killed defending the Ohio border

At the beginning of the war,  he was in Washington, D. C., and, although sixty-three years of age, at once  tendered his services to President Lincoln. Each of his eight sons then living  also promptly responded to the call of the President for troops.

When the rebel general, John Morgan, made his raid into Ohio, Major McCook  was stationed at Cincinnati, and joined the troops sent in his pursuit. Morgan  undertook to recross the Ohio at Buffington island. Major McCook led an advance  party to oppose and intercept the crossing. In the skirmish that took place he  was mortally wounded and died the next day, July 21, 1863, in the sixty-fifth  year of his age. He is buried at Spring Grove cemetery near Cincinnati.

He was a man of commanding presence, an ardent patriot, and an earnest  Christian. He possessed a most gentle and amiable disposition, combined with the  highest personal courage, untiring energy, and great force of character. He  ruled his household in the fear of the Lord, and died as he had lived in the  active performance of his duty


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Latimer A. McCook, M. D.

Born at Canonsburg, Pa., April 26,1820. He was  educated at Jefferson College (Canonsburg), studied medicine with his uncle, Dr.  George McCook, a physician of great skill and eminence, and received his degree  from Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia.
 

He entered the army in 1861 as assistant surgeon, and was soon promoted to be  surgeon, with the rank of major, of the Thirty-first regiment, Illinois  volunteers, known as " John Logan's Regiment."

He served throughout the campaigns of the Army of the Tennessee, and, while  caring for the wounded of his regiment during action, he was himself twice  wounded - once in the trenches before Vicksburg, and again at Pocataligo bridge,  in Gen. Sherman's movement northward from Savannah.

He survived the war, but was broken down in health, and died August 23, 1869,  from general debility resulting from wounds and exposure incident to his service  in the army, and was buried at Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.

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George Wythe McCook

Born at Cannonsburg, Pa., November 2, 1821. He graduated from Ohio  University, at Athens, and studied law with and afterwards became the partner of  Edwin M. Stanton, the great war secretary, in Steubenville.

He served as an officer in the Third Ohio regiment throughout the Mexican war,  and returned as its commander. He was attorney-general of the State of Ohio, and  edited the first volume of "Ohio State Reports."

He was one of the first four brigadier-generals appointed by the governor of  Ohio to command the troops from that State at the outbreak of the rebellion, but  the condition of his health prevented him from taking any command that required  absence from home. However, he organized and commanded for short periods several  Ohio regiments.

He was the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio in 1871 but his health  broke down during the canvass, and he was compelled to abandon the campaign.

He, with the Rev. Dr. Charles Beatty, were the largest contributors to the  erection of the Second Presbyterian church at Steubenville, Ohio, of which be  was a trustee. He died December 28, 1877, and was buried at Steubenville.

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John James McCook

Born at Canonsburg, Pa., December 28, 1823, was educated at  the United States Naval Academy.

While serving as midshipman of the United States frigate "Delaware" off the  coast of South America he was taken ill with a fever following long-continued  exposure while on duty. He died March 30, 1842, and was buried in the English  burying-grounds at Rio Janeiro.

Admiral Farragut in his autobiography pays a high tribute to the personal  character and ability of Midshipman McCook.

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Robert Latimer McCook

Born at new Lisbon, Ohio, December 28,1827. He  studied law in the office of Stanton & McCook, at Steubenville, then removed  to Cincinnati, and in connection with Judge J. B. Stallo secured a large  practice.

When the news reached Cincinnati that Fort Sumter bad been fired upon he  organized and was commissioned colonel of the Ninth Ohio regiment, among the  Germans, enlisted a thousand men in less than two days.

He was ordered to West Virginia and put in command of a brigade, and made the  decisive campaign there under McClellan. His brigade was then transferred to the Army of the Ohio, and took a most  active part in the battle of Mills Spring, in Kentucky, where he was severely  wounded.

The rebel forces were driven from their lines by a bayonet charge of Gen.  McCook's brigade and so closely pursued that their organization as an army was  completely destroyed.

Gen. McCook rejoined his brigade before his wound had healed and continued to  command it when he was unable to mount a horse. His remarkable soldierly  qualities procured him the rank of major-general and command of a division.

He met his death August 6, 1862, while on the march near Salem, Alabama. He  had been completely prostrated by his open wound and a severe attack of  dysentery, and was lying in an ambulance which was driven along in the interval  between two regiments of his division. A small band of mounted local guerillas, commanded by Frank Gurley, dashed  out of ambush , surrounded the ambulance, and discovered that it contained an  officer of rank, who was lying on the bed undressed and unable to rise. They  asked who it was, and seeing that the Federal troops were approaching, shot him  as he lay and made their escape, as the nature of the country and their thorough  familiarity with it easily enabled them to do.

This brutal assignation of Gen. McCook aroused intense feeling throughout the  country.

The murdered commander was buried at Spring Grove cemetery, and his devoted  soldiers and friends, at the close of the war, erected a monument to his memory  in Cincinnati

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Alexander McDowell McCook

In July, 1864, the enemy planned an attack on Washington which scared  Secretary [of War] Stanton so badly that he telegraphed to Grant to return from  City Point and "save this city."

Grant cooly refused. He detached the 6th corps under Gen. Wright and the 20th  corps, under Gen. McCook, and telling them to save Washington, began to draw his  lines closer about Richmond and Petersburg.

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Daniel McCook, Jr.

A colonel who fell mortally wounded while commanding a brigade in Georgia on June, 1864.

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Edwin Stanton McCook

Born at Carrollton, Ohio, March 26, 1837. He was  educated at the United States’  Naval Academy at Annapolis, but preferring the  other arm of the service, when the civil war began he recruited a company and  joined the Thirty-first Illinois Regiment Infantry, of which his friend John A.  Logan was colonel.

He served with his regiment at the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson,  where he was severely wounded. In his promotion he succeeded General Logan, and  followed him in the command of regiment brigade and division throughout the  Vicksburg and other campaigns under Grant, in the Chattanooga and Atlanta  campaigns and in the march to the sea under Sherman.

He was promoted to the rank of full brigadier and brevet major-general for  his services in these campaigns. He was three-times severely wounded, but  survived the war. While acting governor of Dakota and presiding over a public  meeting, September 11, 1873, he was shot and killed by a man in the audience who  was not in sympathy with the objects of the meeting, and was buried at Spring  Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati.

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Charles Morris McCook

At the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, he  served with his regiment, which was covering the retreat of the shattered army.

As he passed a field hospital he saw his father, who had volunteered as a  nurse, at work among the wounded, and stopped to assist him, the regiment passing  on. As he started to rejoin his company young McCook was surrounded by an  officer and several troopers of the famous Black Horse cavalry who demanded his  surrender. His musket was loaded, and he quickly disabled the officer, and, as  he was highly trained in the bayonet exercise, kept the other horsemen at bay.

His father seeing the odds against the lad, called to him to surrender, to  which he replied, "Father, I will never surrender to a Rebel," and a  moment after was shot down by one of the cavalrymen.

His aged father removed his remains from the field, and they were afterwards  buried at Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.

Charles was born at Carrollton, Ohio, November 13, 1843. He was a member of the  freshman class at Kenyon College when the war began, and although less than  eighteen years of age volunteered as a private soldier in the Second Ohio  Infantry for three months' service. Secretary Stanton offered him a lieutenant's  commission in the regular army, but he preferred to serve as a volunteer.

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John J. McCook

At 16, followed the 52nd Ohio to battle. "I do not remember seeing him until our return to the  Court House Square at Lexington. There he found two Parrot guns, which had been  spiked and abandoned. They could not be fired and were absolutely worthless, but  looked well at a distance, and the young Aide-de-camp was anxious to take them  along for moral effect, so he had some mules from a wrecked baggage wagon  hitched on, and after getting Col. Dan's consent, started the guns along with  the procession.

Every 52d man will remember how more than once these old guns, without a  shell to fit them nearer than the Pittsburgh arsenal, were unlimbered in the road  and rails were piled up to make sham defenses. This performance always seemed to  work on the Rebels...,"

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Martha Latimer McCook

Daniel's wife, daughter of Abraham Latimer and Mary Greer was born at Washington, Pa., March 8,  1802. Her maternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish, but on the father's side they  were English, coming originally from Leicestershire.

During the war of the rebellion Mrs. McCook was in a peculiarly difficult  position. Her husband and sons were all in the service. No battle could take  place but some of her loved ones were in danger. Each succeeding year brought  death to a member of her family upon the battlefield. Her husband and three  sons were thus taken from her; and the others were so frequently wounded that it  seemed as if in her old age she was to be bereft of her entire family. Her life  during these long years of anxiety was well nigh a continuous prayer for her  country and for her sons that had given themselves for its defense. This  patriotic woman well illustrates the heroic sufferings endured by the women of  the Republic no less than by the men.

Mrs. McCook died November 10, 1879, in the seventy-eighth year of her age, at  New Lisbon, Ohio, surrounded by her surviving children and friends, and was  buried beside her husband in Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.

   * Served in Civil War
** Served but not in the Civil War